Strength and Survival: Imperfect Hopes
by Kretari - daughter of Hermes
Summary: Their beginning was rather interesting, if Matthew was to be honest. They met by coincidence, and he had been given plenty of warnings to steer clear of Gilbert, but...he can't manage to make himself stay away. This is Matthew and Gilbert's story, all the way from their first meeting up. Rating for language.


**AN: So. Back around to the making of side-stories for Strength and Survival. This one is the PruCan one. And...quite frankly guys, I wasn't planning on getting around to this one so soon. I was going to wait a while on this one. But...a couple of my friends are doing a PruCan cosplay and are spamming me with pictures from it. It's uber cute, so I have to do this.**

**Also, I'll say that I'm still working on the newest chapter for Strength and Survival, I'm just lacking in inspiration as things have been horrid recently, all cram packed together. This past week was monologues in Drama class - I had fun there - and then there was a Chem midterm today and a bunch of stuff for English and Choir as well, then Tuesday we have a performance in Drama that's going to be videoed and maybe put up on the county website...which is slightly terrifying. So that's my excuse for not updating that recently. I haven't had time to catch my breath, much less keep up with inspiration in my group for Strength and Survival right this very second. **

**And I will stop rambling now and let you guys get to the story. **

**Enjoy.**

The morning was quiet. Matthew was rather enjoying that. Lovino was sat across from him, frowning at the cards in his hand. He knew that they were slowly becoming the weird kids who only ever sat off to the side and played card games - namely Pokemon and Magic - but he couldn't bring himself to care. As he waited for Lovino's move, someone came dashing up to the table in a rather apparent rush, knocking into Lovino and causing him to hiss in pain and glare daggers at the male.

"Watch where you're going, damn it!"Lovino snapped.

Only in middle school, Matthew was still surprised that Lovino was cursing as often as he did. He knew it startled their teachers as well, but he didn't try to keep it from happening, it seemed like it was a natural reaction for the Italian.

The male, who had hit the floor right after ramming into Lovino, blinked at the Italian in surprise before a grin lit up his face. "Wait, you're Feli's brother, right?"

Lovino rolled his eyes, turning back to his game.

Matthew shot the other boy an apologetic smile before returning his attention back to the game.

About a week later, the same scene happened, only this time, the boy sat down right beside Lovino just a few seconds before a teacher ran up to the table.

"You are in _so_ much trouble, mister."

Lovino looked up at her for a moment before glancing back to his cards and speaking. "What'd he possibly do? He's been sitting here with us the entire time. We've been attempting to teach him to play Magic for the past week."he said, scanning his cards before laying one down and making a show of explaining what it was to the newcomer, who faked interest in it.

The teacher looked back and forth between the two before casting a look at Matthew, who was waiting patiently for Lovino to end his turn so he could continue.

Lovino seemed to realize this just a second before he finished speaking, because he went ahead and caught Matthew's eyes and nodded.

Matthew smiled softly and went about his own turn, examining the cards carefully before choosing his path.

Once the teacher was appeased and had left, both Matthew and Lovino put the cards in their hands face down on the table and looked at him.

"Who are you?"Lovino asked.

"I'm Gilbert. Ludwig's older brother."

Lovino huffed. "Oh."he said softly.

Matthew tilted his head. "Wait...the one who came to get Ludwig from Vash's house before? While Ludwig was hanging out with Feliciano?"  
Gilbert nodded.

"I remember you! Feliciano told me about it."

Lovino frowned. "Then why don't I? I remember Ludwig, but not this idiota."

Gilbert pouted, but Matthew spoke before he could comment. "You were out of it, Lovi. You'd already passed out."

Lovino winced. "Ah. That day. Right."he mumbled. Then he looked at Gilbert. "You better be glad that I didn't want to fucking deal with listening to yelling from some teacher today. Or I woulda just let her torture you all she wanted."

Gilbert half smiled. "Thanks for that,"he commented dryly.

"Yeah, yeah."

The next month or so was full of Lovino and Matthew getting to know Gilbert. Sometimes, Francis would join them as well in the mornings, and then there were those rare few times that Feliciano sat with them and had drug Ludwig over as well. Those mornings, Lovino said nothing, instead focusing on the game in front of him.

Matthew could tell he didn't like Ludwig from how he acted when he was nearby.

It was one of these mornings when Gilbert decided he was going to really start opening some doors.

"So, Lovino."

Lovino gave a faint nod to show he was listening, but kept looking between his cards and the cards on the table in front of him.

"I was wondering why you seem to be so closed off towards people."Gilbert said.  
Feliciano frowned in worry, since he was sure that his elder brother's reaction would be very bad for them all.

Lovino frowned up at Gilbert before he decided the conversation was worth more than the game and tossed his cards down, face up, showing Matthew what he'd had.

Matthew looked between them and his cards before he smiled. "Man, if you'd've played a couple those decently, you would've won this round."he said.

Lovino shrugged, glowering at Gilbert. "Why I'm so closed off?"he asked. "Why would you want to know that?"  
"Because, it's not normal for someone to be so cold towards everyone! I mean, I've never even seen you hug your brother or say the words 'I love you' to him."

Feliciano winced. "I really don't want him to say 'I love you' to me. That always ends badly when he does."he commented quietly.

Lovino frowned. "I don't do that because I don't want to open myself for any more injuries than I already gain by being the way I am."

This made the conversation die out, and Lovino turned around to gather his cards quietly.

Lovino thought through things while he was in his history class that morning, that maybe Gilbert was right, that he could be a bit more open without getting hurt. But he shrugged it off. He could consider it later, when he knew he wouldn't get killed for it.

**Here ya go. **


End file.
